Galdino Sierra, a California sex offender whose family was gunned down in Mexico by rival factions of his Indian tribe, has been sentenced to 37 months in prison for returning illegally to the United States.

Tucson lawyer Roger Sigal says that Sierra, 26, a Chatino from the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, may still be eligible for refugee status and allowed to stay in the country after he serves his sentence.

Based on Sierra's "tragic life circumstances," Sierra and Sigal had asked U.S. District Court Judge David C. Bury to give Sierra only 14 months in prison.

Bury didn't do that. But Sierra's previous conviction could have meant a sentence of 41 months or more for the offense of returning to the United States after deportation.

Sierra was sentenced in 2011 to two years and eight months for sexual battery and sex with a minor. He served one year before being deported in January of 2012. A few months later, he got caught with two other guys trying to bluff their way through the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 19 north of Nogales, Arizona. He's been behind bars ever since.

He and his siblings, who live in California, plus his lawyer, all claim that Sierra keeps returning to the United States because he's in perpetual danger in Mexico. Records show his fear is probably warranted.

Chatinos, some Internet searching reveals, are an indigenous people of Mexico who have struggled with factional fighting in recent decades. A court memorandum filed by Sigal before the August 20 sentencing hearing backgrounds the matter with a history lesson on the struggles between Chatino traditionalist leaders, like Sierra's late father, Cirulo Sierra Salinas, and the "modernos" of the tribe.

A clash over water rights in the rural town of Santa Lucia led to the 1996 murder of Sierra's brother, Pablo, when Sierra was 9. A year later, ignoring threats and traveling to Santa Lucia to visit his son's grave, Cirulo was "gunned down... by the modernos." Sigal attached documents to his pleading from local Mexican police officials who back up the details of Sierra's family history.

Image: youtube.com/watch?v=1fiQs1FOWpU

A Chatino woman prepares food in a rural Oaxacan village in this YouTube screenshot.

Yolanda, Sierra's mom, fled out of town with her family, knowing her sons were viewed as potential successors to Cirulo, a tribal leader. She "sent" her two oldest sons to the United States so they could better support the family. Two years later, she and her oldest daughter, Beatriz, moved to Petaluma, California, where the eldest sons had settled. Another son moved north, leaving Galdino, at 14, in Cerro de Aires to watch over his younger brothers, Jose Luis, 4, and Romero, 7.

Yolanda finally decided in 2003 to try to take the rest of her boys out of Mexico. While in Cerro de Aires, she was attacked by the modernos in her home, beaten, and shot in the chest, according to Galdino and Mexican documents.

"I went crazy because I didn't know what to do or what to tell them," Galdino wrote in a affidavit to the court. "I couldn't do anything for her. She died in my arms."

A week later, the teenage Galdino snuck his two younger brothers over the internationa border and reunited them with family members in Petaluma.

he is a sexual predator, and one with a offense against a minor. i personally have no problem with him wanting to stay in the US as long as he wants to do it behind bars, the prison populance will take care or him once his crimes become known. i just dont get how people are more upset with him being an illegal alien instead of being upset that he is a sexual predator. (and dont give me that old bullshit of all illegals are like that.............we have plenty of white pedarists and rapists too, Brewers son is a convicted serial rapist and he's white). why are people so concerned over his immigration status instead of his being a sexual predator??? just look at HILLFOLKREDNECK's comment below...............................first and foremost in his mind is his immigration status, not the severity of his crimes. to quote HILLFOLK................"dont come here and rape our women!!" ..............seriously??? as long as they arent OUR women its okay??

TAKE A GOOD HARD LOOK FOLKS, NOW THAT'S WHAT A GODDAM ILLEGAL ALIEN LOOKS LIKE. AND IF YOU ASK ME THEY NEED TO TAKE HIS ASS OUT BACK AND STRING 'EM UP!!! YOU DON'T CROSS MY BORDERS AND YOU SURE AS HELL DON'T COME HERE AND RAPE OUR WOMEN!! YALL NEED TO WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!

@mrh0202201091 i just have one addition to your comment, "regardless of race, color or creed" (the reason we need to actually add that instead of it just being something we all know, is because of twits like JAFfy who always seem to think for some unknown reason, that we are demanding free passes for illegals when we arent)

@danzigsdaddy OH HELL I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN YALL WOULD GO ABOUT MIXIN' UP MY WORDS AND MAKIN' A FUSS. LISTEN HERE BECAUSE ITS OBVIOUS I HAVE TO EXPLAIN MY GODDAM SELF EVEN AT THIS DAY AND AGE IN OUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH. I NEVER SAID NO CRIME WAS THIS OR THAT, THAT'S NEITHER HERE NOR THERE. I SAID HE WAS ILLEGAL AND THE BASTARD RAPED. I WANT THE SON OF A BITCH TO BURN IN HELL!! THIS IS MY COUNTRY, THIS IS MY LAND, MY HOUSE, MY TRUCK AND MY GODDAM RESPONSIBILTY TO MAKE SURE FOLKS LIKE HIM DON'T STEP ONE FOOT NEAR WHERE HE AIN'T SUPPOSED TO BE!!!

@HILLFOLKREDNECK WELL LET ME RE PHRASE THAT SO THAT EVERYONE CAN REMEMBER WHAT YOU SAID...'STRING HIM UP' THEY NEED TO TAKE HIS ASSOUT BACK AND'...THAT JUST PROVES YOU ARE THE RACIST RED NECK THAT EVERYONE IS BEEN CALLING YOU...BY YOUR OWN WORDS..THAT CAME OUT OF YOUR MOUTH REMINICENT OF THE KKK....KLU KLUX KLAN..THIS MAN SHOULD BE INCARCERATED IN AN INSTITUTION...RUN BY THE STATE..NOT PERSECUTED BY CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT..WHICH IS IN THE U S CONSTITUTION..

@HILLFOLKREDNECK AND YOU LIKE THE CLOSED MINDED FOOL THAT YOU ARE...DON T THINK FOR ONE MINUTE THAT AMERICANS DON T BRAKE THE LAWS IN MEXICO....LIKE RAPE WOMEN.. KILLING MEXICANS .ROBBING PEOPLE AND ASAULTING THEM AS WELL. NOT ALL AMERICANS COMMIT CRIMES IN MEXICO...SOME ARE ACTUALLY STAND UP FOLKS......BUT THEN AGAIN SO ARE SOME MEXICANS IN THIS COUNTRY AS WELL...BEFORE YOU START THINKING YOU ARE SO HIGH AND MIGHTY...I MIGHT RECOMEND..YOU GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE AND GO DOWN TO MEXICO FOR YOU SELF..OR ATLEAST MAKE SOME EFFORT..TO GET EDUCATED..AS TO THE FACTS..AND KNOW THEIRE NEEDS TO BE SOME CLEANING HOUSE..IN ALL DEPARTMENTS...BEGINING..WITH YOU AND THE LIKES OF SHERIFF JOE..

@HILLFOLKREDNECK please tell me how you fought for OUR borders.....................you seem to think they are yours by your statement of "you dont cross my borders............" i would love to hear your stories of patriotism and courage. there arent enough people out there who would be willing to sacrifice as much as you and I have to defend those borders. thank god there were patriots like you and i to make sure our homeland was secure and that we were there to keep them safe from people like sexual predators like Joe has.....................................hey? wait a minute...............he didnt did he? WHOA!!!!! wait a minute???? you didnt defend our country or borders either did you???????? holy shit!!!!!!!! why, i would be willing to bet that you think trespassing is a more heinous crime than rape dont you???? well guess what? you backing Arpaio is the same thing. he has many dedicated officers under him and what does he do with them? he sends them off on stupid ass things like his immigration raids instead of letting them do honorable law enforcement , things like stopping pedarists and rapists and murderers. do you know why he impedes those dedicated officers that actually do want to enforce ALL laws equally????? he does it so he can get more media time and cater to idiots like you. if you really felt the law should be enforced, you would be demanding answers as to why he sent half of his sexual crimes task force (4 people) to the Honduras to teach Hondurans to investigate crime instead of letting those officers solve the crimes they had like they wanted to do. many of the officers under Arpaio are tools, tools that are ineffective unless used by someone who knows how to use them (kind of like you with your Snap-on tools and the brake jobs you do). if those officers had a competent leader and not one who was infatuated with being in the media............................well then we would have a damn admirable police force in MCSO. until then all we have in MCSO is a shadow of what could be, and since shadows are not solid tangibile things...................Joe is making a mockery of MCSO officers and law enforcement

@HILLFOLKREDNECK really? you are more concerned with the fact that he is an illegal instead of the fact that he is a sexual predator? the sexual predator part bothers me more. that speaks volumes about you and your mentality and priorities. i suppose youd be fine with it if he was a sexual predator BUT white right?

@john043012 and i thank you for addressing the more serious crime that this piece of shit HAS committed instead of addressing his immigration status first, the guy is a sexual predator that regardless of race or nationality needs to be assessed as such. doesnt matter if he is white, red, brown or black or yellow...............he is a sexual predator. thank you for being observant John

@HILLFOLKREDNECK, BWA HA HA HA HA, FUCKING TOOTHLESS, DID U READ THE ARTICLE, HE ALREADY HAS COME 2 X BEFORE, SO HE STEPPED BOTH FEET ON "UR LAND AND UR COUNTRY AS WELL" 3 X WITH THIS ONE, HE ALREADY CROSSED UR BORDERS 3X ALSO, AND THERE'S NTHNGU CAN DO. I HOPE U BURN IN HELL SINCE PROBABLY U'VE BEEN PLAYING WITH UR SISTER AND UR GOATS, U R A FALSE CHRISTIAN SON OF A BITCH, THUS, U'VE COMMITED MORE CRIMES THAN HIM. BTW, I THINK THAT "ILLEGAL" LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE URSELF. TRY 2 UNTANGLE UR PANTIES, SHINE UR SHIT SMELLING BOOTS, TAKE IT EAZY REDNECK. AMEN

@HILLFOLKREDNECK in my honest opinion...........none of us should be here. America would be an unspoiled paradise if none of us ever came here and we left it to the people who respected this land and all that was in it. the indians were treating this land right till we came along and decided it and everything in it was ours. we took their land, we raped their women, we killed them off, we destroyed all of their natural resources, we brought them our diseases, we brought them our hate. and we did it all without their permission or welcome. we have less right to this land than the mexicans do and we did more damage to it